The Great Loss
by lostandfound47
Summary: Gibbs comforts his newest agent as she comes to terms with loss and her past life


A/N: Hi Guys! I've written before but this and several more stories are going to be done under a different pen name for me for a few reasons. The first is because I am not ready for people to know what my childhood was like and connect the horror with me.

Let me explain that I know people don't like new characters, but I needed to add one for me. The character, Sophia, is based off me. The events in this story are true, as they relate to her. I needed this for therapy, or so the department shrink told me to try this. Many of you know my other pen name, and I am not ready for everyone to know who I am in regards to the events that are being written about. I don't think of myself as a victim anymore, but I am still very private about my childhood, but this helped. I have always channeled my emotions into my writing and talking to my two friends, one that I just lost.

Yes, a week ago my one best friend said something that was similar to this story and I feel like I still have a sword in my back. I can't talk to her because I am not sure that what I can tell her anymore. I have cried every night because I feel very alone right now. She was what I considered family. Yes, I drank too much and yes my boss had to break into the house and found me still sleeping in the bathtub. I am not sure who is more traumatized- him or me. However, it was suggested that I write in a journal. Instead, I thought I would write a story.

This may be a little OC for Gibbs, but my superior is very similar too him in my opinion. Yes, I was supposed to catch up paperwork that morning. Yes I was late. Yes, I was unresponsive when he first found me. Thankfully, he also chose not to take me to the hospital. He called for help.

I will keep writing about her for a while. This is not beta'd so all mistakes are mine and I apologize. I tried to get everything out.

Agent Sophia Greene flinched as soon as the words had left her friend's mouth. The words had cut like nothing in her life had managed too. Brown eyes widened in split second disbelief before she was able to mask her features and hide the pain that she had just felt. She smiled slightly and then looked down as she let her friend ramble on. Her best friend, who had begged her to stop by because she didn't want to be alone, had called her this morning. She had managed to just break up with her boyfriend and was upset.

Sophia felt for her friend, Sara. She knew that Sara had always been more attached to every boy that she dated. This one had made it a year and a half before bailing. Sophia had known that this one wouldn't end well. None of them ever did. However, in true friend fashion she had kept her opinion about the boy to herself and supported Sara every time there was doubt or issue. Sophia had gotten the text messages over the last few weeks that Sara and Mike were not doing well. Finally, it had come to a head and he had opted to leave. So after work, Sophia had opted to head over to her friend's house outside the city and kept her company for a while.

Sophia wasn't sure when the conversation had become dangerous. One minute they were talking about Sara and then... then the conversation had taken no prisoners. In a flash, Sophia's oldest and most trusted friend and produced a Samurai sword and swung. The words that had come out of her mouth had cut Sophia to the core, leaving a gaping hole that she wasn't sure she could close before it killed her.

_ "You could change if you wanted. You let yourself be used. You learned to lie when you mask stuff and not tell people things that you should. You are the reason you are alone and that's the only reason. You could love and trust people but you choose not too. You are not the only one who had a bad childhood. Get over it."_

Sophia played those words over and over in her mind. Then a half hour later she excused herself to go home and go to be because she had to work in the morning. It wasn't a lie, it was the truth. It was paperwork Saturday and Gibbs expected her there. So, she got her coat, hugged Sara, and then slipped out the door into the cool October night. Getting into her car Sophia felt the first tear escape from her eye.

Sophia didn't stop until she made it too her apartment in the city. Her hands were shaking when she undid the lock into her apartment. Her chest felt tight, air coming into her lungs, but just barely. She fumbled with her purse and coat as she entered her apartment and then shut the door behind her. She flipped the door lock, the deadbolts, and then hooked the chain.

She walked into the kitchen and grabbed the shot glass from the cupboard and the bottle of Cuervo 1800 that she kept for special occasions. She poured a shot and drank it. Then poured three more and finished those off. She wasn't normally a drinker, but the pain tonight just had to be dulled or it was going to kill her. She pulled her green coat off and let it fall onto the floor next to her heels that she had slipped out of. Then she walked into the living room, paused at the stereo only long enough to plug her iPod into it, and then walk off down the hall towards the bathroom to run bathwater.

Sophia pulled the pins out of her hair and then started to take her clothes off. She let them fall in the floor into a trail from her stereo to her bathroom. Sophia grabbed a bath towel off the shelf and wrapped a it around her, checked her water, and walked back. Opening the cupboard she pulled out a fresh bottle of wine and opened it. She grabbed a glass from the wine glasses and then headed back to the bathroom where she poured herself a large glass and dropped the towel and sunk into her scalding hot bath water.

She looked at the clock on her wall across from the bathtub and sighed. She was going to have to be up in a few hours to be at work. Tomorrow was paperwork Saturday and it was her turn to go in. Right now it was the last thing that she wanted to do. What she wanted to do was crawl into her bed and perhaps not come out for the next several days. The words that Sara had set to her had cut deep into her soul. Sophia kept few friends. She knew many people, was good at hiding her emotions, but kept few true friends that she confided in. In truth, she only had two and one had just laid her soul open to hemorrhage. Closing her eyes, Sophia put her head back against the wall and relaxed.

_Saturday NCIS Headquarters_

Agent Gibbs swallowed his last drink of coffee and threw is cup into the trash. His agent was late. She wasn't: I stopped for coffee and the line was ten minutes long- late. She was over an hour late now. Gibbs picked up his phone and dialed her cell number again. This was the fourth call, and he was annoyed at best. He grabbed his gun, badge, and keys when the fourth phone call went to voice mail.

The early morning traffic was non-existence on the October Saturday morning at 0700. It only took him ten minutes once he left the Navy yard. Sophia had found an apartment in the city when she had moved to town to take the job he had offered her after working a case together. He and the others had insisted that she find a new one, but she didn't want to break the lease. None of them had liked the area, as it wasn't the greatest.

Pulling up in front of the building he threw the car into park and headed towards the building. He sighed when he saw the closed sign on the elevator. He took the stairs to the tenth floor. He had never been to her apartment and when he came in it took him a moment to find her door. She apparently had taken the last apartment in the hall. It was furthest from the elevators and the stairs.

Standing outside her door, Gibbs dialed her number once more from his cell phone. He could hear it ring through the door and listened into his own phone as the cell phone rolled into voicemail.

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

Gibbs banged on the door to Sophia's apartment. He waited for her to answer and when she didn't in the time he though appropriate, he tried one more time.

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

Again, the knock at the door went unanswered. This time, however, Gibbs decided there would be no third attempt. He pulled out the two picks that he used in the field to pick locks and went to work on the three deadbolts that were on the door. He cursed silently as it took longer than normal. She had put good locks on the door. He vaguely remembered her coming in one morning saying she had to go pick up locks that evening. That was when she had first moved in.

After several minutes he was finally able to undo the last lock. He turned the handle, opened the door, and nearly slammed into the door when it stopped. It had a chain. Gibbs rolled his eyes. He put his shoulder on the door and pushed hard, breaking the chain. Opening the door then, he walked into what appeared to be the living room. Looking around he spotted the trail of clothes from the living room to the hallway. Next to the door was a small table that held Sophia's purse, badge, and gun. He shut the door behind him and called out.

"Sophia?"

Walking towards the hallway he saw a light on behind one of the three doors. Habit made him open that door to the first door he came too and found a room that contained a bed and dresser. The next one had the light on and he called out again.

"Sophia? Are you here?"

There was no answer again, and Gibbs pushed to door open. "Agent Greene?"

In the mirror he could see his agent in the bathtub. Beside her, sitting on the floor, was a bottle of wine and an empty glass. He pushed the door open all the way and stepped inside the room. He grabbed the towels sitting on the sink and knelt down. He shook her shoulder. Eyes fluttered, but refused to open. Gibbs reached into the water and felt for the drain plug. As the water drained out, he unfolded one towel and covered his agent's naked body. Then he reached under her and picked her up. She was cold to the touch, ice cold.

Gibbs kicked open the door to the first room and laid Sophia on the bed. Then pulled the blanket over her. He checked her pulse, which he found slower than normal, but strong and steady. He took her chin in his hand and tapped two fingers against the side of her face. Sophia moved her head and he called out her name again.

"Sophia, open your eyes," he said loudly. He watched as his agent struggled to wake, but she settled and her eyes never open. Frustrated, he pulled out his cell phone and dialed Ducky's phone number.

"Don't tell me we have a case this morning Jethro. It's still very early," Ducky said.

"No case Duck. I need you to come over to Sophia's apartment. I found her in the bathtub and she isn't waking up."

"Jethro, might I suggest calling for an ambulance. That would probably help her more quickly than I can."

"I might agree Ducky, but I think they might make something out of the tequila, bottle of wine, and finding her in the bathtub. I don't think she tried to do anything, but she is cold. Too cold if you ask me."

"Alright Jethro. I will come over, but I warn you that if I think she should go, then we are going to send her."

"Your call Ducky, once you get here," Gibbs agreed. He wouldn't argue if Ducky thought it best. However, he was hoping that she had simply, perhaps, drank more than her system could handle and just needed to sleep it off. He gave Ducky the directions and then sat back to wait.

However, the sitting didn't last long. Within minutes his drive to know things drove him to get up and start looking around. He went to the bathroom first and picked up the wine bottle that was next to the bathtub. He cleaned up the bathroom a little and then wandered out to the living room. He started looking at her shelves and noticed that she had no pictures of her past. There were a few with her former colleagues. Some of them were her, by herself, on vacation. He looked at the laptop that sat on her coffee table and smiled. There were two more pictures, but it was of his team. One of Tony, Ducky, and Tim making a funny face. The other one was of him.

He realized that he didn't really know that much about his agent. She and he had met while working a case. She had been quiet, reserved, but her eyes spoke volumes more. In her eyes he could see questions, curiosity, drive, commitment, and loyalty. She had proven herself in the field on the case.

It wasn't until the door knocked that he drew his attention away from the pictures. He crossed and opened the door.

"Hey Duck," he said holding the door open.

"Good morning Jethro. Where is our Agent Greene?"

"The bedroom. First door you come too."

As Ducky shed his coat, the phone in her apartment rang. The two men stood and listened as her voice spoke her message and then someone else's came on.

_"__Sophie,__I__'__m__sorry.__What__I__said__last__night__was__out__of__line.__You__were__a__child,__you__had__no__choice__and__what__happened__to__you...__I__'__m...__I__know__you__didn__'__t__have__a__choice.__I__had__no__right__to__say__what__I__said.__Your__were__a__little__girl__and__no__one__should__do__what__they__did__to__you.__Call__me,__please.__"_

Then the caller hung up. Gibbs and Ducky stood looking at each other. Neither knew what to make of what they had just heard.

"I am going to go check on your young Agent, Jethro." Ducky gathered his bag back up and headed in the direction of the hallway. Then he walked away down the hall. Ducky turned on the light as he walked into the room. He set his bag down and pulled out his stethoscope and blood pressure cuff. The numbers were low and Ducky looked at Jethro as he stood in the doorway.

"Where did you find her?"

"In the bathtub. She had a bottle of wine next to her that was empty. I don't think she tried anything, but I can't explain this."

"Well it is possible Jethro that she fell asleep and mixed with the wine she never woke up. According to her body temperature, she is mildly hypothermic," Ducky said putting the thermometer back into his bag. "I suspect that is all there is too this. She should warm up on her own. I've heard of this happening before."

"Should she go to the hospital," Gibbs asked.

"I don't think so Jethro. Just put on some water please, and I will be out in a minute."

Gibbs nodded. Then he headed out towards the kitchen to find a kettle and water. After putting on water to boil, he saw Ducky sit his bag down on the kitchen table.

"Well," Gibbs asked.

"She opened her eyes and responded, but very sluggishly. She is waking up still. She fell back to sleep, but as I said, she is hypothermic but that is all. I'm gonna give her an hour or so. I'm also going to make her some hot packs and put them under her. She'll warm up more quickly that way, and since she wasn't in any serious danger as you found her before any real harm was done, we should see improvements in a hour or so."

The two men sat down on the brown sofa together after Ducky had made two warm packs and put them under Sophia's armpits and tucked the blankets in around her. They drank their tea and coffee while they waited. Ducky got up a few times throughout the next two hours and checked on Sophia. The last check found Sophia curled up onto her side. Ducky knelt down next to her face and tapped her chin.

"Sophia dear, please open your eyes. I need you too talk to me," Ducky said in a coaxing voice. "Come one Sophia. Open your eyes."

Ducky gave her a moment to comply with his request. He watched as her eyes fluttered open. The brown eyes that she possessed that were normally full of confidence and authority were now confused. She blinked several times trying to focus on the face that was in front of her. Her brow creased as she focused on Ducky.

"Ducky," she whispered softly. "What are...what are you doing here?"

"Well my dear," Ducky started. "Seems Jethro became concerned when you were late for work. He found you and couldn't get you to wake up. So he called me."

Ducky smiled at Sophia. "So Gibbs is here?" The words came out slowly, almost as if she was having trouble creating the sentence itself.

"Yes, he is. Jethro is sitting in your living room," Ducky stated. Ducky fished out a wrist and looked at his pocket watch as he counted her heart rate.

"What happened Ducky," Sophia asked when Ducky had put her arm back. Ducky liked that her words were coming together better with each passing minute. She was coming back to herself.

"My best guess is that you fell asleep in your bath tub. You were mildly hypothermic and most likely didn't wake up because of the wine you had consumed. Why not get dressed into something and come out. Then we can talk."

Sophia nodded and gripped the blankets to pull them back. A hand on her wrist stopped her before she could act. "You should wait until I leave Sophia. I will be in the hall way in case you need anything just yell out."

Sophia did as Ducky requested but didn't understand why. She gripped the blankets and threw the back.

"OH MY GOD!" Sophia looked down at herself and screamed out when she realized she wasn't wearing any clothes.

"Sophia dear," Ducky called out. "Are you okay?"

"What? Yes! I'm fine Ducky, thank you." Sophia stood up and swayed for a moment. She grabbed onto her bed to steady herself. Once the dizziness had passed she walked over to her dresser and pulled out a pair of panties and slipped them on. She followed them with a cotton bra and then jeans and a black long sleeve shirt and put a purple t-shirt over it. She pulled on a pair of socks next and then pulled her hair back into a ponytail.

She walked out into the hallway and smiled at Ducky. "All dressed," she said red with embarrassment.

"Well, my dear, that will warm you up then. Your temperature was still a little low, but safer than what you were," Ducky said as they walked into the living room. "Your heart rate is back to normal. Over all, I would say that you are back to normal. My suggestion, however, is no more wine while bathing in the tub. Even though this is a rare thing you have managed to do, I would not want you to replicate the evening again. It is apparent that you and alcohol do not mix well. "

"Thank you Ducky," Sophia said while giving him a kiss on the cheek. Her face was still slightly red from the thoughts running through her head. She knew Ducky was right. She was a lightweight, and this time it really had cost her.

"Not a problem my dear. Now, if the two of you are good from here, I do have to leave. I have another appointment that I am already running a little late for."

Sophia only nodded, but Gibbs looked at the ME while holding the bag so that Ducky could put his coat on. "Ahh, thank you Jethro."

"Thanks Ducky."

Gibbs grabbed the doorknob and held it while the elderly ME walked through and then closed the door behind him. He turned and looked at his agent and cocked his head to one side.

"Thanks for coming to check on me Gibbs." Sophia couldn't look up at her boss. The knowledge that he had seen her naked was weighing too much on her mind. Her face turned red as she mumbled her thanks, and she prayed that he didn't see the color change on her skin.

"Want to tell me why you have three locks and a chain on your door? I know the area isn't great, but I think that might be over kill," Gibbs said moving to get his coffee. He was hoping to break the silence and give her something else to concentrate on for a moment. The red ears were enough to tell him that she had figured out that he had been the one to find her in the bathroom.

Sophia turned and walked into the kitchen to make her a cup of tea. "I wanted to make sure no one else could get in that easily."

Gibbs raised an eyebrow. _Get__in__easily,_he thought. _Hell,__it__took__me__almost__five__minutes__to__get__in__and__enough__noise__that__she__could__have__been__up,__dressed,__and__gun__aimed__at__the__door__waiting._It didn't make sense to him. "Perhaps, as McGee suggested, you might want to find a different apartment. Three locks and a chain is overkill, don't you think?"

"You want more coffee boss?"

Gibbs swallowed his comment. "Sure," he answered walking in the kitchen with his cup. He sat down on a stool that was on the one side the island.

"I will be in later as soon as I get dressed for work and-" Sophia started and then stopped when her boss interrupted her.

"What happened," Gibbs asked. She was like Tony, and he knew that she was going to dodge the subject if he didn't nail it down now.

Sophia closed her mouth and looked at her boss. "Nothing happened."

Gibbs raised an eyebrow as he starred at his agent. "Nothing huh?"

"You heard Ducky, I fell asleep."

Gibbs nodded. "You're a light weight Agent Greene. I know this. You know this. Tony knows this. Abby knows this. We all know it. A bottle of wine is more than you can handle. You're buzzed at two glasses, and drunk by the third. I've heard from them. You won't drink more than one glass when you go out with them. Ducky's dinner was the only time I've heard of you drinking two, and they were well spaced the way I heard it. Why were you drinking so heavily?"

"I had an empty stomach boss. I wasn't drinking heavily. I had a couple of glasses-"

"You had more than a couple," Gibbs broke in. "You had at least four and if I guess correctly, probably the bottle held six. It's a fine wine, but a large bottle. The corkscrew is on the counter along with the cork. That doesn't count the bottle of tequila that was down and the shot glass next to it. What happened?"

"I was tired, the wine just made me sleepy-"

"Enough!" Gibbs barked the word out and saw his agent flinch. "We have done this dance Agent Greene. I don't want to do it anymore."

Sophia set the coffee pot back into its place. Her eyes were wide and had darkened. She watched her boss stand up from the stool he had been sitting on when she'd poured his coffee. Gibbs came to stand in front of her.

"Look Boss," Sophia said. "I'm sorry I caused an issue. You're right. I drank too much. It's not something I do often, I just needed to unwind and I guess the bottle got the better of me. It won't happen again."

Gibbs starred into her eyes and nodded. "Then tell me if this has anything to do with the message on your machine that you got this morning."

Sophia frowned and then slid by her boss and walked to her answering machine. She hit the flashing red button that read one message. She heard Sara's voice come over the machine and closed her eyes. This situation was becoming increasingly complicated, and she really did hate complication in her life. It was something she had tried to weed out of her life since leaving home at eighteen.

She also knew that the message left a lot open for the imagination, and that people like her boss could imagine many things. Sadly, most of them were probably true. She knew she was going to have to offer some sort of explanation for the message. He was right. She was drinking because of what Sara had said.

"Agent Greene?"

Sophia nodded her head slightly. "Yes, I was drinking because of something she said. I did it to dull the pain for the evening. Yes, I probably shouldn't have, but now it's a little late. Is that what you wanted to hear," Sophia whispered. Her back was still to her boss, but she didn't want to turn around because he would see the tears.

"What's going on Sophia?" Gibbs asked the question again, but lowered his voice putting as much concern and compassion in it as he did with victims.

"It's nothing boss. She just said something last night that hurt. I don't trust people easily with the history of my life, and she is one that I did. She was upset. She had just broken up with her boyfriend and didn't receive something I said well. She responded with a comment and it just took me back for a moment. I... I know she didn't mean it."

Gibbs nodded and stepped closer to his agent. "You want to talk about it?"

Sophia shook her head. "No Boss. I don't. I want to forget."

"Sometimes that is hard to do," Gibbs said. "No matter how we try."

"Sometimes it is best. We don't always get a choice in what happens to us, and the results are what we have to deal with."

"Sophia," Gibbs tried again.

He was putting pieces together in his head. He had done research on his agent before hiring her. He knew that she'd had a rough start in life. There were inches thick files in cities from social services and courts. Her family had been far from perfect. She had been taken several times, but always returned to family members. Then when she was seventeen, she had had herself emancipated from her parents and struck out on her own.

"Sophia, you are right. We don't always get a choice, but you have one now. If you travel down the road you have been on since you left home, you are never going to find your way. You have to let someone in."

Gibbs watched his agent. He didn't expect her to spill everything, but she needed someone to talk too.

"I did," Sophia whispered, barely loud enough for Gibbs to hear. "I did and she used it against me. She was the one person I thought I could tell things, no matter what they were. I didn't have to hide. I didn't have to worry about being judged. I could just be me. Last night she all but told me that I deserve what is happening too me. I know I'm screwed up. I know that I am not the best person in the world, but I try. I don't want to hurt anyone. I hurt for too long."

Gibbs heard her voice break. He knew she was crying. Gibbs reached out one hand and gently laid it on Sophia's shoulder. He was careful, as he knew she had never liked being touched. No one, not even Abby, had been able to break that habit. Abby was the only one who could come close, and even with her, Abby had to accept hugs were quick and not often. Rarely did Sophia allow herself to touch anyone or be touched if she could help it.

He gently turned her around. Her head hung down, so that she wouldn't have to see her boss. She didn't want anyone to see her cry. It was a sign of weakness for her. A sign that she couldn't handle what was happening.

Gibbs stepped into her space and wrapped his arms around Sophia, pulling her into his chest. He felt her tense up, but after a minute she relaxed as her emotions got the better of her. For the first time in years, Sophia truly cried. Her sobs were quiet for a while, and then he heard the sound of heartbreak and felt her knees give out. He compensated for her weight and they sunk to the floor slowly.

"It doesn't make sense," she cried into his chest. "Why would she do this? Why?"

Gibbs shook his head. "I don't know Sophia. Sometimes people say things without thinking about the damage they are about to inflict. Most of the time they don't mean what they say, but the damage is done and repairing it is hard."

It took nearly thirty minutes for Sophia to clam down. When her sobbing had turned from gut wrenching screams to quiet sniffles, Gibbs decided to get her up and onto a couch. He stood, taking her, bodily, with him. He walked her to the sofa and sat her down. Then grabbed some tissues from the box on the coffee table and put them in her hand.

Gibbs sat down on the coffee table and waited for Sophia to be able to talk again. When it looked like she could at least breath again, he said, "Why don't you tell me what happen and start from the beginning."

Sophia nodded. "A month or so ago I told the guy I was dating that I was working and couldn't met up with him. I wanted some alone time, and we had been so busy. I liked being around him, but I just wanted to be alone. The time before that when I had asked for alone time, he pushed. I wasn't afraid or anything, but I just didn't want to argue. I was sick and we were working. It was my birthday, and I was sick. I told him no. I told him that I didn't feel well, and he just kept calling. I got beat down, and told him maybe and then just didn't pick up my phone. He came over then too my apartment. I was tired boss. I was sick. I didn't want... I didn't want... I didn't want to argue. I didn't answer. I told him later that I had spent the night somewhere else. I told him I spent the night at Sara's house."

Gibbs nodded. The entire team had been busy for the last two months. It seemed that every criminal who had taken a vacation had just started up again. They were catching three and four cases at a time, in the same day. It wasn't just his team either. The other teams were complaining of the same thing. She had been sick. Ducky had written her a script after an exam and a confirmation of strep throat. In fact, Ducky had ridden Jethro a little hard because he hadn't sent her home. He had needed her. He had needed his team, all of them. They had let her sleep when they could. In the car, at her desk, he hadn't complained when after three days strait in the office Tony had opted to let her sleep in the car while he interviewed a witness by himself.

"I take it you told Sara," Gibbs prompted gently.

"Yeah. I didn't want to hurt him but yelling at him. He just kept asking even when I said I didn't feel like getting together. He would come back with comments like: just for a few minutes or I promise I will leave after a short visit. I just knew, and I didn't have the strength. I knew that if I had somewhere else to be, he would leave it alone and say ok."

"Was that the only time?"

Sophia shook her head. "No. The pushier he got, the more I started saying I was at work or something. I was going to break it off because I didn't like lying, but Sara pushed for me to keep seeing him. She told me to tell him, but..."

"But what?"

"But he had been told. Time and again he had been told and he never listened."

"Is this the guy you're still seeing?"

Sophia nodded her head. "I didn't want Sara to think that I didn't try. She thinks I never try."

"What do you think?"

"I don't boss. I try to keep the relationship going, but ..."

"But what?" Gibbs gut was coming on. Something in her words, or maybe her actions said that something wasn't right.

"I don't know. I realize I've screwed up my life. I know where I went wrong and where I did right. I don't regret the choices I have made in my life. I know what happened to bring me where I am today." Sophia stopped talking for a moment and looked down at her hands. "I just wish I had someone who didn't judge. I wish I had someone I didn't have to argue with. I wish I had some peace in my life."

"That's hard to get in our line of work Sophia."

"No. You don't understand. I like what I do. I love what I do. I would do it again if I had to redo any of it."

Gibbs nodded. He understood. "Look, friendships sometimes, like relationships, reach an end. Not all do. You need to figure out if this one has. If it has, then let it go peacefully. You'll only do yourself a disservice by trying to keep it alive."

"It will break her heart," Sophia said softly.

"She broke yours. Can you risk that again and forgive her?"

Sophia was quiet for several long moments before she said, "no."

"Then walk away," Gibbs said.

Tears fell slowly from Sophia's eyes. "Then I will have no one. What have I done to myself?"

"Hey," Gibbs said leaning forward. He tapped a single finger under her chin. She jumped at the touch, but lifted her eyes to his. "You have a family. It's not biological and we haven't known you all that long, but you are a part of us. You. Are. Not. Alone. Do you understand me?"

Sophia starred into those blue eyes that had taken on a serious look. She knew he meant what he was saying. She nodded.

"Go grab your coat and we'll go get something to eat, some coffee, and then head in to do some paperwork. You can ride along with me."

Sophia smiled slightly. "Alright. Let me brush my teeth and hair. I look a mess." She stood up and started to walk down the hall. "Um, boss?"

"No one will ever know if you don't tell them," Gibbs said standing up. "I did not break in to see you naked Agent Greene. I needed to know what was so wrong that you were not answering your phone or your door."

"Good. I had no intention of telling anyone."

"It's probably best that way."

When she reappeared fifteen minutes later, she had changed put a sweatshirt over her t-shirts and put a pair of tennis shoes on. She put her gun on the belt of her boat cut jeans and her badge next to it. Gibbs handed her the green wool knee length coat that she wore and she slipped over everything. It was almost one when the made it too a small deli. The paperwork took them most of the afternoon, and by six, they called it quits.

When Gibbs went to get the head, Sophia picked up her phone and dialed Sara's number. It went to voicemail, "Hi Sara, it's me."


End file.
